


New Eyes

by forsakencas



Category: Death Note, Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note: Another Note
Genre: Age Difference (5-6 Years), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 03:55:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9159664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forsakencas/pseuds/forsakencas
Summary: L and Light were once friends, and so, when Light is rendered mostly blind and an orphan after a car accident, L takes him back to Wammy's House. There he meets Beyond Birthday, a boy who sees too much and hints that he can help Light get his sight back. Light is torn between Beyond Birthday and L as they enter into a battle of wits, and people begin dying as Kira takes the stage.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: The content contains a blind character. I am not blind and have had no experience with friends/family members who are. That said, I have done/am continuing to do research so as to portray this character as accurately as possible. If you believe I am doing a poor job and have suggestions, please feel free to comment or message me on my tumblr (it is linked on my profile). I am also taking steps to make L and Light slightly more human (and easier to write honestly) while still maintaining a fair portion of their canon personalities.

To put it simply, L was bored.

Not that he necessarily wanted something _bad_ to happen just so that he’d have something to do, but… well, yes. Yes, he did. Of course, L had not become a detective as a means to pursue justice; he’d done it because of the challenge that alleviated his chronic sense of listlessness and the rush of cracking a particularly difficult case. But currently, there were no cases of interest, and he was merely bored. How utterly _disappointing_.

He rifled through the various email accounts of his false personas, discarding a case from New York City and another from Tokyo, both of which he determined to be too simple to serve as an adequate distraction. Each city’s resident police department would likely be able to solve its respective case within the week without L’s help.

Although… Tokyo. L had lived there for fourteen months during his teens. After exhausting the curriculum at Wammy’s House at fifteen, he’d been in need of a change of pace and so he and Wammy had left Winchester for a small house on the outskirts of Japan’s capital where L could begin making a name for himself as the World’s Greatest Detective. L felt a smile curl at his lips as he remembered.

In the house adjacent, there had been a little boy named Yagami Light. He was only ten to L’s sixteen, and yet the boy was still perhaps one of the most interesting people he’d ever met. His intelligence was remarkable, easily worthy of Wammy’s House. However, Wammy had a policy of only accepting orphans. Children with parents were simply too much trouble to make disappear.

The young detective initially began observing him on the computer monitor through the cameras Wammy – now Watari – had set up around the house the moment the two of them had arrived. Within the first few days, it became immediately apparent that Yagami Light was somewhat of a genius, if the calculus textbook he lugged to school and back was any indication. However, intelligence meant little if not accompanied by a sizable dose of natural intuition, and L was not given any evidence of the young Yagami’s perceptiveness until the fifth night.

In the preliminary stages of analyzing a case he had deigned to take up that night, L glanced cursorily at the surveillance images an hour or so after midnight. To his mild surprise, he saw the window to what he had deduced to be the boy’s bedroom rise and a hand that held a sheet of white paper appear from the gloom. L read the note after it had been taped to the windowpane. _I do not like to be watched_ , _Ryuga-san_. Light was no doubt referring to whatever alias Watari had introduced them as. At the sight, L leaned back in his seat and brought his knees up to his chest, contemplating. _I suppose he could have seen Watari place them… but no, I have too much faith in Watari. He has never been noticed before, and I doubt that has changed. But then how?_

Annoyed, he rewound the footage from the camera that contained the window in the upper left hand corner of the frame, watching for any sign of movement. Finally, in the tape from two nights earlier, he found it. It was quick, no more than a minute. The boy leaned his torso out of the window, a flashlight in one hand while the other held a paper towel roll to his right eye. As the boy moved the light in measured rows along the siding of the house where L presently sat, the detective knew exactly what he saw: three small circular telltale white reflections that indicated the presence of a camera. And of course, the lack of the LED light present in most recreational cameras would reveal that these in particular were designed for covert surveillance rather than just security. L’s lips quirked. _The kid is good_ , he admitted to himself. _And paranoid_.

L found himself interested. By dawn, the paper had been removed like it never existed. Indeed, the boy did not acknowledge him again for several days. He’d exhausted the information contained in the local news praising his academic achievement (he’d skipped two grade levels apparently and would be entering junior high the following year) as well as an article lauding him as an “upcoming tennis Junior National Champion”. He’d also discovered that Light was learning calculus from a private tutor, as his elementary did not offer the class, unsurprisingly. Curiosity ate at the edges of L’s consciousness.

Ten days after Watari and he first moved into the little house and five days after the incident, L decided to approach Yagami Light in person. He waited impatiently for the boy to walk by on his way home from school. Despite the case he was working on, L found himself glancing repetitively at the film streaming from the camera on the front porch that overlooked the road, restless. Finally, as he saw the small figure enter the frame at the end of the street, he sighed with relief and stood. For the first time since his arrival, L opened the front door and stepped outside. He waited at the edge of the pavement for Light to approach.

For a moment, it looked as though the young Yagami was just going to walk past him without acknowledgement. That was unacceptable.

“Light-kun.” The boy stopped in front of him, turned, and looked up into L’s face.

“Ryuga-san,” he replied, voice flat. “I do not like to be watched,” he repeated.

L played the fool. “It’s a lovely day we’re having, isn’t it, Light-kun?” Light looked up at clouds that threatened to burst at any minute overhead.

“No, it isn’t,” he replied, unimpressed. The look he gave L was unusual for a child his age. It was completely blank, like a well-trained poker-player, contrasting oddly with his large childlike eyes and cheeks that still retained a hint of baby fat.

L dropped the act. “It’s an unfortunate but necessary precaution, Light-kun. My grandfather, he’s in a similar line of work as your father, although as his position is more elite. Because of this, he is also in more danger; ergo, the cameras.” Misdirection was key, and L watched with slight amusement as Light bristled at the underhanded slight to Yagami Soichiro.

“How do I know that’s true? That you aren’t spying on our home to get revenge against my father for arresting one of your friends or something?” Light’s childish voice rose.

“If you believed that, Light-kun, then you would have informed your father of the cameras when you first found them, or indeed, suspected their existence.”

As Light stared up at him, L noticed how short he was. _He must be small for his age. He’s over a quarter of a meter shorter than I am_ , L mused. _And his eyes… they definitely see a lot more than any other child his age_.

“Would you like some cake?” L broke the silence abruptly. “What?” Light said, almost sounding affronted.

“Some cake, Light-kun. I’d like some cake, but I would also like to continue my conversation with Light-kun. Thus, it is polite to invite him in for some cake.”

“I – no, of course not. You could be some sort of pedophile. I’m not going in your house for some cake.” Now Light definitely sounded insulted.

“Fine. Then we can go to Light-kun’s house. Do you have cake you could share?” Truthfully, the range of emotion’s that flitted across the Yagami boy’s face was so amusing, L barely managed to maintain his expressionless mask.

“Just – okay, fine.” Light’s expression settled on irritated. He turned on his heel and continued on toward his own house, without turning to ascertain that L was following.

When they reached the Yagami front door, Light rapped on the wood twice, and they waited for Yagami Sachiko to open it. Light’s mother was a slightly plump woman, only slightly taller than her son, but her beaming smile was larger than that of three lesser women put together. Light allowed himself to be swept in for a quick squeeze before pulling back.

“Mother, this is our neighbor, Ryuga Hideki. He’s only just introduced himself.” The wording of Light’s statement implied that L’s behavior was incredibly rude. L interpreted it correctly as revenge for the slight against his father.

“Oh, how lovely!” The woman exclaimed. “Would you care for a plate of cookies?” L perked up immediately.

“Oh, yes, thank you, Yagami-san. That would be quite appreciated.” She beamed once more, and then bustled off toward the kitchen, leaving them in the hallway. There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment until Light said, “Well, I suppose you’d best come on,” and led him into the living room.

Within a few weeks, L had ingrained himself into the Yagami’s lives. After living with the other children at Wammy’s House for ten years, he found the company comforting. Every day, while Light was in school, the detective worked on his cases, and every day after school, he met Light at the road. When he learned that while the Yagami Sochiro owned a chess set, he had never found the time to teach his son, L taught the boy. By the end of the year, the two were so evenly matched, it was a coin’s toss as to who would win the game. It was a _challenge_ , finally.

They also practiced English, and L enjoyed tormenting Light as he found something the boy wasn’t naturally gifted at. Of course, these taunts only made Light more determined to be perfect so that his English skills rivaled that of his teachers by mid-semester. L had found himself quite content with the arrangement, acknowledged that he was becoming complacent, but couldn’t bring himself to care. Eventually, after fourteen months, Watari stepped in and stated the inevitable.

“We have to move.” And that was that. They were in Moscow by the next afternoon, and L hadn’t even told Light goodbye.

That was seven years ago, and L found himself thinking of the boy once again. Of course, he’d looked him up before, curiosity not banished. Yagami Light exceled in school, won several awards for tennis, became the Japanese Men’s Chess Championship (L smiled at that), and had just achieved a perfect score on the university entrance exam and declared his intention to attend To-Oh University next year. L wondered what Light was up to now, and his fingers flew across the keys to find out. Abruptly, L felt as though the breath had been knocked out of him by a punch to the gut. _Which is ridiculous of course. I can protect myself from any attacker_. L’s mind scrambled as he read the headline.

“NPA OFFICER AND WIFE DEAD IN CAR ACCIDENT, SON BLIND”.

The article was from six months ago. Yagami Sochiro and Sachiko were dead. He hadn’t known Light’s father particularly well, but he had deeply respected Sachiko and harbored a special place beside Watari, albeit smaller, for the woman who had, without fail, prepared a plate of freshly baked cookies for him every afternoon for fourteen months. He suddenly found himself thinking of the first afternoon he hadn’t arrived. _Had the cookies been eaten? Who would have eaten them? Light doesn’t like sweets._

Light. Blind. The news reporter had apparently spoken to the surgeon who had treated Light in the hospital. The blunt force trauma to the head during the accident had severely damaged his optical cortex. Whether he would regain his eyesight completely or not at all once the swelling went down was anyone’s guess, according to the second-hand information. But, regardless of whether his eyesight returned, his parents never would. He was officially a sixteen-year-old orphan, and where he might once have been able to file for emancipation as he was entering university as a fully-fledged college student, it would never happen now that he was blind.

L leaned back in his chair and pulled his knees to his chest, thinking, then picked up the phone next to the keyboard and dialed.

“Watari. Tell Roger to prepare a room at Wammy’s House. We are going to have a new student, I think. And prepare for a flight to Tokyo.”

**Author's Note:**

> Addressing Confusion/Concerns: I hope the shift between present day to flashback to present day was reasonably easy to follow. All interaction between L & Light in the chapter was a flashback until L read the news article. Present day, L is twenty-two and Light is seventeen. I would, however, like to make very clear that when sixteen-year-old L meets ten-year-old Light, there is no hint of anything sexual. No relationship will develop until Light is at least 18, if one develops at all, which I have not determined (I go with my flow). In any case, this fic will never become explicit. 
> 
> Thank you for reading the first chapter of "New Eyes". I appreciate any and all comments, (constructively) critical or complimentary alike, as well as kudos. They motivate me to continue writing. I hope you all have a lovely day.


End file.
